Good Old texts

A place to keep track of reference material - any particularly useful books, articles, etc. should be listed here.
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Richard Hull
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Good Old texts

Post by Richard Hull »

These are chocked full of good info. inspite of their age and a true joy to read.

They are worth having if you really like the wisdom of the ages and good backgrounding.

1. "The Interpretation of Radium", Soddy, 1908 (several reprints to 1923) A colorful and highly enlightening work that expanded in later editions. Lots of early photos and great, detailed, experiments with raw radium bromide in front of a live audience at the University of Glascow in 1908. This is a fantastic book and has no equal among the early books on radiation. You are placed in the audience as you read. Do not miss this great book Makes you want to go out and experiment!

2. "Radiations from Radioactive Substances" Rutherford, Chadwick, Ellis, 1930 (Chadwick was only a couple of years away from discovering the Neutron!) Highly recommended. A follow up book to Rutherfords original pre WW I book, "Radioactive Substances and their Radiations". A bit pricey when found, but still the cheapest of all of Rutherford's books, and the most up to date.

3. "Fundamentals of Nuclear Physics", Beyer, 1949 Consists of facsimiles of 13 of the most important nuclear discoveries, as announced in journals. This group of papers is followed by the most complete nuclear bibliography compiled to that time of significant works spread over the remaining 140 pages of the book! A super reference.

4. "Experimental Nucleonics", Bleuler and Goldsmith, 1952,1956, and on into the 60's. Millions printed! Atoms for peace period textbook used to train tens of thousands of college kids to play with nuclear stuff. Pretty good section on Rad safety and explanations of radiation units.

5. "Nuclear Radiation Physics", Lapp and Andrews, 1948 into the 50s. Multiple printings of one of the earliest college level texts on the coming nuclear age. Loaded with good data.

6. "Ions, Electrons and Ionizing Radiations", Crowther, 1920, 1924, 1928, 1930, 1934 and on and on and on. Many of printings of many new editions. Perhaps the finest text ever produced on the subject. It outlived all others. A really nice book that catches all of your favorite stuff and explains it in a basic and digestable form. Ions in gases (fusor). X-ray radiation (fusor), Alpha, Beta, and Gamma radiations. Neutrons are covered also in the later editions. I can't say more than if you can have only one of these books, this should be it!!

The foregoing is just a smattering of good texts relating to radiation and nuclear phsyics as it grew from the early work in the dawn of the twentieth century into its most successful and stable form in the 1950s and 60s.

A trio that can't be beat would be #s 2,4, and 6 I suggest getting crummy copies of these as you can beat them up in the lab. I have 10 copies of Crowthers book and at least 8 are already, as received, underlined in ink!! Such books can be had for under $10.00!

Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
ajmoir
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'The Interpretation of Radium' is available OnLine

Post by ajmoir »

For all the idealists/cheapskates like myself

The Interpretation of Radium
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'Ions, Electrons and Ionizing Radiations' is available OnLine

Post by ajmoir »

Ions, Electrons and Ionizing Radiations
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'Radioactive Substances and their Radiations' is available OnLine

Post by ajmoir »

Radioactive Substances and their Radiations
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Re: 'Radioactive Substances and their Radiations' is available OnLine

Post by Starfire »

Yet another snip Alistair - thank you
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Re: 'Radioactive Substances and their Radiations' is available OnLine

Post by philstro »

Thank you Richard and thank you Alistair, these are great downloads. Special thanks to whoever posted the piece on Major Armstrong, who has long been one of my heros.

Phil Strohbehn
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